1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to telecommunications systems and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for measuring voice quality in a packet network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, telecommunications systems provide the ability for two or more people or machines (e.g., computerized or other electronic devices) to communicate with each other. A telecommunications system may include various networks for facilitating communication that may be generally organized into packet networks and circuit-switched networks. An exemplary circuit-switched network includes a plain old telephone system (POTS), such as the publicly switched telephone network (PSTN). Exemplary packet networks include internet protocol (IP) networks, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks, frame-relay networks, and the like. One type of packet network is a voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) network.
Calls in a VoIP network typically follow a pattern with respect to time of day, day of week, and geographical distributions. For example, most consumer traffic may be local to the subscriber base and occur during the evenings and weekends. The voice quality experienced by particular customer segments may vary as a function of these traffic patterns. Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for a method and apparatus for measuring voice quality in a packet network capable of accounting for particular traffic patterns across customer segments.